RDB Isaiah, Psalms, Virgil, Socrates

The Death of Socrates

In Plato’s “The Apology of Socrates” Socrates declares that, “The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death” (Plato 1). I think Socrates hit the nail right on the head with these famous last words. All too much, people fear the thought of death and let their earthly life consume them. While the question of what I want to do with my life before I die has plagued my mind for many years, I have recently realized that it really does not matter what I do with my life, it simply matters how I live it. When God “breathed into (us)…a breath of life, and (we) became living being(s),” I believe he endowed us with all that we need to make this life full and complete (Genesis 741 B). By creating us in His image, he not only gave us a heart and spirit to evoke His presence and to share His love and compassion with the world, but also provided us with a body through which we can inspire others through our actions. The selections from the works of Isaiah, Psalms, Plato, and Virgil, truly present their reader with a confirmation of God’s omniscience and omnipotence, and challenge believers to be vessels of God’s glory. Though we as humans may consider ourselves the most important inhabitants of this earth, we must remember that we are only an insignificant part of God’s vast creation. As Plato says, “for not caring about what for which (we) ought to care, and thinking that (we) are something when (we) are really nothing”, we should be reprimanded, and it is up to God’s servants to reveal this to us (Plato 3). It is the responsibility of the “chosen few” to uplift us from our present state of unrighteousness and corruption and lead us back to the righteous path. In a world full of violence and hatred, it is sometimes hard to see the original plan of peaceful coexistence that God desired for us all. Edward Hick’s painting “Peaceable Kingdom” is an illustration of Isaiah 11:6-9, and perhaps a representation of how the earth will be restored with the coming of our salvation. “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid… they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of knowledge of the Lord, as waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:6-9). Someday the world will return to a state of peace, and like the beastly nature within the leopards, lions and bears in Hick’s painting, the evil tendencies of the world will subside, and “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it TOGETHER: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” (Isaiah 40:5).

Peaceful Coexistence TOGETHER